1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to filter cover assemblies for an air conditioning unit and, more particularly, to a filter cover assembly for air conditioning units which allows a user to easily install a filter in a casing of an air conditioning unit through an opening provided on the casing, and to easily remove and mount the filter cover assembly from and to the opening of the casing, so that the user can conveniently exchange the filters when necessary.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Filters are important elements that are installed in a variety of fluid paths to remove impurities from fluids, such as air or water, flowing through the fluid paths with minimum flowing resistance and maximum filtering efficiency. Particularly, an air filter used in an air conditioning apparatus of a vehicle is installed at a predetermined position within an air flowing path of the air conditioning apparatus to remove impurities from air while the air is fed into the passenger compartment of the vehicle after the air is being conditioned.
To accomplish an air conditioning effect for the passenger compartment of a vehicle, atmospheric air is forced into the passenger compartment after being processed by the air conditioning apparatus. During the operation of a conventional air conditioning apparatus for vehicles, atmospheric air is forcibly drawn by a suction force of a blower fan installed in the air flowing path into the air conditioning apparatus through a cowl that functions as an outside air inlet of the air conditioning apparatus. In the conventional air conditioning apparatus for the vehicles, the inlet air passes through a heat exchanger, such as an evaporator or a heater, to be cooled or heated, prior to being discharged into the passenger compartment through a plurality of air discharging grilles provided at predetermined positions within the passenger compartment.
While the conditioned air is fed into the passenger compartment of the vehicle, it is necessary to remove a variety of impurities from the air using an air filter. Typically, the air filter is installed at a predetermined position in the air flowing path of the air conditioning apparatus, for example, at a position in front of the evaporator of an evaporator unit or within a blower unit that draws the atmospheric air into the air conditioning apparatus. The evaporator unit and the blower unit of the air conditioning apparatus are examples of air conditioning units of the apparatus.
As the air filter has been used for a lengthy period, an excessive amount of impurities is deposited on a filtering surface of the filter, thus increasing the air flowing resistance and reducing the air blowing efficiency of the blower fan. Therefore, existing filters of the air conditioning apparatuses must be periodically changed with new ones. To allow a user to easily change an existing filter with a new one, an air conditioning unit, such as the evaporator unit or the blower unit, having the filter has an opening on a casing thereof to allow a user's hand to reach a desired place within the casing. A filter cover assembly is mounted to the opening of the casing, thus closing the opening. Due to the opening of the casing closed by the filter cover assembly, the user can remove an existing filter from the casing and install a new filter on the desired place within the casing through the opening after removing the filter cover assembly from the opening.
The construction of a representative example of conventional filter cover assemblies for air conditioning units is described herein below, with reference to FIG. 1. In the following description, the air conditioning unit having the filter cover assembly is an evaporator unit. However, when the filter is installed in a blower unit, in place of the evaporator unit, the filter cover assembly will be mounted to a casing of the blower unit.
As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional filter cover assembly 5 is detachably mounted to an opening 11 formed on a side surface of an evaporator casing 10, so that the filter cover assembly 5 closes the opening 11. The evaporator casing 10 houses an evaporator 20 therein. The filter cover assembly 5 constitutes an evaporator unit 110, in cooperation with the evaporator 20, an air filter 40, and the evaporating casing 10 that supports both the evaporator 20 and the filter 40 therein.
The conventional filter cover assembly 5 comprises a cover body 51 and a seal 52. The seal 52 is attached at a bonding surface 521 thereof to a rear surface of the cover body 51 to accomplish a desired sealing effect for the opening 11 when the filter cover assembly 5 is mounted to the opening 11. The cover body 51 is a rectangular body, with a peripheral contact surface 511 formed around the outside edge of the rear surface of the cover body 51. The contact surface 511 is seated on a seating surface 11a formed around the edge of the opening 11 of the casing 10, so that the contact surface 511 can seal the junction between the filter cover assembly 5 and the opening 11, in cooperation with the seal 52. The cover body 51 is depressed rearward at a predetermined area of a central portion thereof inside the peripheral contact surface 511, thus forming a longitudinal reinforcing part 512 to increase the structural strength of the cover body 51. At least one fitting protrusion 513 extends downward from the lower edge of the cover body 51. The fitting protrusion 513 is inserted into a fitting slot 12 that is provided on the side surface of the casing 10 at a position under the opening 11. A hook part 514 having a locking slot 514a perpendicularly extends rearward from the upper edge of the cover body 51 to be locked through a snap locking manner to a locking protrusion 13 formed on an upper surface of the casing 10.
Due to the above-mentioned construction, the cover body 51 is mounted to the casing 10 by primarily inserting the fitting protrusion 513 of the cover body 51 into the fitting slot 12 of the casing 10, and by secondarily locking the locking slot 514a of the hook part 514 to the locking protrusion 13 of the casing 10 through the snap locking manner. In the above state, the contact surface 511 of the cover body 51 is placed on the seating surface 11a of the opening 11 of the evaporator casing 10.
The seal 52 which is a gasket, is attached at the bonding surface 521 thereof to the rear surface of the cover body 51, so that the seal 52 removes the gap from the junction between the contact surface 511 of the cover body 51 and the seating surface 11a of the opening 11 when the cover body 51 is mounted to the opening 11 of the casing 10. Thus, the seal 52 seals the junction between the filter cover assembly 5 and the opening 11.
To mount the conventional filter cover assembly 5 to the opening 11 of the casing 10, the hook part 514 of the cover body 51 must be locked to the locking protrusion 13 of the casing 10 through the snap locking manner. However, since the hook part 514 perpendicularly extends rearward from the upper edge of the cover body 51, the hook part 514 may often interfere with surrounding elements, including the evaporator casing 10. Furthermore, the conventional filter cover assembly 5 having both the cover body 51 and the seal 52 must be forcibly removed from and mounted again to the evaporator casing 10 when desired to exchange the filters, thus reducing work efficiency and being inconvenient to the user during a process of changing the filters.